Best way to back up steam games/game saves?q

I'm getting a new harddrive and do not want to re-download all my games and lose my saves. I have a have a 500 gb external hdd and 700gb of games. Should I delete the games I don't need to copy and use steam to backup my games, or should I copy them from the steamapps folder?

I have had only bad experiences with the steam backup thingy, and if dont lack space, just copy the steamapp folder, just dont forget to check if your saves go anywhere else, like appdata or something.

For the games, copy the entire steamapps folder. For savegames I use this tool which is constantly updated for newer games.

http://gsm.duncsweb.com/

If I use the steam to back up the games, will it also back up their saves automatically? Also, if I copy them from my steamapps folder, will they automatically appear in my steam library when i put them on the new hard drive?

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Does the steam back up tool also back up saves?

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Copying the steamapps folder is the way to go. It takes up slightly more space but you don't need to wait for the games to be unpacked (which can take ages). When you do it this way the games will show up as not installed but all you need to do is tell it to download them and it will start verifying the files. The games will be listed as "Downloading" while this is happening this but no actual downloading takes place (unless there is a newer patch, of course).

Note that some games on Steam do not save within steamapps; it depends on the game so you'll need to investigate further. If you're also backing up your Windows user profile it won't matter since you'll be catching the saves wherever they land.

As an aside note that in order for Steam to see your games on a fresh install you need to be connected to the internet. This applies to both backup methods.

Easy there with the bumps. After my post I decided to go out and get some sunshine. :D

Steam backup does not do your savegames. 4 steps for backup:-

1. Copy steamapps folder onto external backup drive

2. format, reinstall, and reinstall Steam

3. put the entire backup of steamapps from external back into the proper directory.

4. Play

The only thing Steam will redownload is when there is a patch/update for the game. Each time there is a big update I just recopy that games directory from the Steamapps folder onto my external backup.

The actual Steam Backup feature is terrible and much slower than doing the Steamapps folder way. Especially when you start accumalting a lot of games.